The further and continuing adventures of the girl who sat in the back of your homeroom, reading and daydreaming.

Tuesday, September 04, 2012

You Get The Superheroes You Deserve

And Perth, Western Australia, has Wheel Clamp Man. --No, he doesn't clamp the louts who fail at parking (pity, that), he unclamps motorists with his handy angle grinder -- after asking, and in return for a donation to an actual charity, mind.

Proper Authorities are not at all amused.

He may've been inspired by Britain's Angle Grinder Man, who fought The Clamp Menace* a decade earlier, half a planet away. ...Fought and won, at least for a given value of "win:" wheel-clamping on private land will be banned in England and Wales come October. (Northern Ireland and Scotland, well, y'see, this is yet another manifestation of a very long and dark history we're not likely to see set right at any point in human history. Also, you can still get clamped there.)

The caped-crusader thing, it may be catching on.__________________________________________* Not to be confused with The Clam Menace. Oh, hells no.

Language is a wonderful thing, is it not? Normally, offering to "fix" somebody's troubles with the police for a fee is considered a crime, but if you do it as a "superhero" with a catchy title... WELL! That makes it all OK, doesn't it?

Doc Jim: He may or may not be "fixing" cop-installed clamps. Some of this activity in the Crown realms is done in much the same manner as improperly-parked cars are towed from private lots in the U.S. Nor am I necessarily approving of his actions; I'm simply noting 'em.

"I saw to what extent the people among whom I lived could be trusted as good neighbors and friends; that their friendship was for summer weather only; that they did not greatly propose to do right; that they were a distinct race from me by their prejudices and superstitions."